The Lord's Day Bible Message Outlines
October 4, 2009
Pastor Dana Johnson
"...when He had by
Himself purged our sins...." -Hebrews 1:3
Who being the brightness of His
glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all
things by the word of His power,
when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the
right hand of the Majesty on high.
1. Consider the
meaning and significance of the word "purged.'
a. The word
means to cleanse.
b. The word
signifies that provision of eternal cleansing made by
Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant in fulfillment of
all the various sacrifices of the Old Covenant.
Hebrews
9:13-15 - For if the blood of bulls and goats and the
ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for
the purifying of the flesh, 14how much more
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15And for this reason He is the Mediator of
the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption
of the transgressions under the first covenant, that
those who are called may receive the promise of the
eternal inheritance.
c. The word reminds
us that Christ fulfilled the roles of both priest and
sacrifice.
Hebrews
9:23-26 - Therefore it was necessary that the copies of
the things in the heavens should be purified with these,
but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices
than these. 24For Christ has not entered the
holy places made with hands, which are copies of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us; 25not that He should
offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most
Holy Place every year with blood of another;
26He then would have had to suffer often since
the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of
the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself.
2. The passage teaches
an important theological point: the sufficiency of Christ's
cleansing work on the cross.
a. It is
emphasized that he completed His cleansing work:
"had...purged." Therefore it is wrong to offer continual
re-sacrifice of Christ in the Mass.
b. It is emphasized
that Christ completed His cleansing work alone: "by
Himself." Therefore:
1) It is
wrong for priests to presume they are assisting in the
re-sacrifice of Christ in the Mass.
2) It is wrong
to presume that we must purge our sins in penance or
purgatory.
c. It is emphasized
that Christ's death produced specific effects: He "purged
our sins." Therefore, no earthly priest can presume to
grant or deny the effects of what Christ has already
accomplished.
(All
Scripture quoted is from the New King James
Version)
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